Google Will Be Selling Home Loan And Groceries Soon

byElias ShamsThis week marks the week Google will take over the world. We might as well start getting used to calling our planet GOOGLE. It ain’t earth anymore.

Referring to one of my earlier posts back in Jan 2nd about Google, I meant it when I said Google would rock our world in 2010.

We are not half way into February, Google has already announced so many new services that no one would have ever anticipated. I didn’t take the launch of GoogleWave and GoogleBuzz surprising. It was expected soon or later. I learned that after three years of running the social search company, Searchles as their CEO last year. It became obvious to me Google would come up with something similar to our solution and even more robust at some point. They introduced GoogleWave and just recently GoogleBuzz that has the potential to kill Facebook and Twitter all together. Too early to make such a conclusion though.

To me, the alarming factors about Google were:

a) Their recent launch of Public DNS serviceb) The recent launch of an alternative to HTTP, called SPDYc) Their participation in auction for 700 MHz Spectrum in 2008. Although, they eventually lost the auction to Verizon Wireless, but they introduced their fist Smartphone, Nexus one last month

Now, they plan to build high-speed broadband networks that certainly will change the broadband landscape in the nation, and possibly bankrupt many of the ISPs.

The announcement for such massive project by Google came out this week. After listening to their product manager, James Kelly in this video; I was able to connect the dots and learn more about their rational for such a great initiative:

Google plans to build and test ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the United States that will deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most of us have access to today with 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. They plan to offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people. The “competitive” pricing by Google means we’ll see some price drops from the other Internet service providers. And maybe, just maybe, they’ll get motivated about improving their networks.

This is just awesome! Google may be taking over the world, but they do such a great job, and are so innovative, that I’m fine with being ruled by them. Given the rise of cloud computing, I think this is a great starting step to get all software into the cloud. I bet companies like salesforce.com who have been very active in cloud computing are happy with such initiative from Google.

No mention of the wireless component to their tests yet, but as I mentioned earlier, they have been very aggressive in the wireless space in the last few years so it stands to reason wireless could be considered in their plan as it develops. They are already urging the FCC to look at new and creative ways to get there in its National Broadband Plan.

From their announcement, it looks like they want to test to see how developers react to high-speed networks, i.e., if developers will make next-generation killer applications, as well as test deployment techniques and open access theories and choices for service providers. The company has been extremely vocal about open access – “We’ll operate an ‘open access’ network, giving users the choice of multiple service providers. And consistent with our past advocacy, we’ll manage our network in an open, non-discriminatory and transparent way.”

Perhaps, this is another classic Google’s Trojan Horse Strategy,

a) To force competition so the ISP landscape looks how they want it to look. The ISPs will most likely take a loss for a few years, and then bow out. This isn’t a bad thing, and it’ll work in our favor, but that is most likely what they’re doing. Google clearly thinks they can build a better Internet than the one we have today.b) To get EVERYONE to surf at a Gigabit/sec so their Chrome “browser-only” operating system becomes viable to everyone. They can offer applications on a cloud server and you can access them through the internet at speeds that would compete with Operating Systems such as Mac OS X or Windows.

Besides, Internet connection speeds today in the US are just too slow for Google docs which rivals some of Microsoft’s applications.

Still not clear whether Google really plans to be a broadband service provider or even a builder, but the test bed likely will show the government how high-speed broadband networks can be built and operated, similar to how Google changed the course of the 700 MHz auctionwhich they lost to Verizon Wireless.

No doubt their experiment will be disruptive to telecom carriers like AT&T and Verizon, as well as cable companies, which all offer broadband services. Having said that, frankly, the idea of Google entering the ISP market will make other service providers to step up their game. Since the inception of the WiMAX service provider, CLEAR, I have noticed that several providers have lowered their prices and some have even began offering the option for mobile service. Free Enterprise is the best system for providing consumers with the best products and services at the lowest prices…

Communities looking to bring broadband services to their regions should consider a hybrid approach that uses fiber in denser urban corridors paired with wireless services like LTE and WiMAX in other areas.

For sure the property values in that community receiving such service from Google are going to skyrocket as geeks begin to froth at the mouth. Just tell me where and I’m moving!🙂

About Elias ShamsI have been a serial entrepreneur in telecom and social media space for past 12 years or so. I hold a M.S. degree in Telecommunication Engineering from the George Washington University and a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland. I’ve lived and worked in many countries and cities including London England, Tehran Iran, Bonn Germany, Paris France, Alicante Spain, Delhi India, and my favorite of all Washington, DC of great US of A. Two of the greatest Washington, DC based companies I worked for and very proud of are Yurie Systems which was sold to Lucent in 1998 for $1.23 B and telezoo.com that I founded in 1999. I am currently the founder and awesomizer @ awesomize.me

I just cringed at the thought of Google moving into the loan business. You see; I plan to walk away from my upside down mortgage soon. And I realized that if Google some how ended up being the lien holder there would be absolutely no place on this earth for me to hide. Luckily for me you were just jesting. Thank you for setting my heart at ease Elias. By the way I was thinking of running for D.C. Mayor. What do you think of my chances?

Sorry to scare you Downs. I have been tracking google for years. The moment I heard about their latest initiative, Home Loan And Grocery shopping were the first thing came to my mind they might be doing next.

The whole D.C. mayor thing would be a long way off if ever. That was just a bit of levity.

But seriously; Google reminds me of John Rockefeller’s Standard Oil. An organization that cobbled together a fragmented industry to make it leaner, meaner, and cheaper to the end user. But alas it all ended in tears when Standard Oil was broken up into smaller pieces amidst an antitrust suit.

Well , in my Point of View Google still have a long way to go if they want to compete in the wireless area ,but other than that they are doing just great , with the whole package of new services they are giving every day .

Telecoms seems to make sense at a high level. Especially in the US, the telecom / mobile operators are very expensive – for some valid reasons and for some not-so-good reasons. However, it is not easy to replace what the telecom/mobile operators provide. This is a very complex topic.

Home loans? On-line lending/borrowing can offer many advantages, and it would require large scale. I would also look at Intuit, Paypal, Microsoft, among others, in this arena.

Much of the speculation about Google misconstrues their intent: They will try to become a major operator or handset supplier. I doubt they will become a major hardware anything supplier.

Their intent has been and will likely remain ‘bending the curve’ of industry development.

This gets pretty lame.. the on and on of articles about how Google was going after 700 MHz spectrum, invested in Clearwire, came out with a handset. While writrers get their panties all knotted up in their crotches in angst about what Google is doing in these far flung spheres, they have lost sight of what makes sense.